Interaction Between Agile Methods and Organizational Culture – A Qualitative Study

Background: Agile practices have gained popularity in the 21st century. There is also a growing body of research on agile methods. While some earlier research on agile practices and organizational culture exists with the assumption that the optimal combination of agile practices and organizational culture exists, we examine how agile methods and organizational culture interact and are mutually adjusted. Method: To find out how agile methods and organizational culture are related in practice, we conducted 50 semi-structured interviews with software and embedded software developers from five Japanese companies and three software teams from Finland. Results: Adopting agile methods does not necessarily cause convergence of organizational culture toward democratic which seems to be most compatible with archetypal agile practices. Agile methods can be adapted to organizational cultures that are sometimes challenging to modify. We demonstrate that companies tried to fit agile practices into hierarchical organizational cultures, demonstrating that organizational culture can occasionally be viewed as an exogenous variable influenced firm-, product-, and industry-specific features. Also, it is possible to transform organizational cultures to democratic. The examples demonstrate how companies alter their culture in part through HRM techniques. It should be noted, however, that these efforts to conform to culture can have some restrictions. Conclusion: There is not a single ideal combination of agile methods and organizational culture, despite what some earlier studies suggested. The results show how organizational culture and agile methods interact and adapt to one another in different ways. According to several earlier studies, different organizational cultures may support different facets of agile methods. They do not presuppose organizational culture diversity; in that it goes beyond the notion of a one-to-one relationship between agile methods and democratic organizational culture. While implementing agile practices in various organizational cultural contexts, practitioners must consider how agile methods and organizational culture are interconnected

Management of a recreation service to the Pakistani personnel of the Mangla Dam contractors

The purposes of this study were to identify acceptable procedures for organizing, managing and administering a recreation service; to state objectives; to define the role of the project recreation manager; to establish procedures for management; and to set the pattern of relationships between the project recreation manager and the Pakistani assistant recreation managers. Because as Allen states, “organization is, essentially, organization for for management and the structure of the business itself cannot be designed successfully unless we know the purpose of that which we build”, it became important to correlate the organization of the study with the organization of the structure for operation of the recreation service. Thus the problem was: (1) to determine the valid principles guiding organization and management and to apply those principles to a specific problem in organization, the operation of a recreation service for the Pakistani personnel of the Mangla Dam Contractors; (2) to select procedures based on those principles; (3) to determine the most acceptable techniques and most effective methods for applying procedures; and (4) to determine the influence of the culture and religion on activity programming. In undertaking the administration, and particularly the managements, of a Pakistani staff, the most important objective was the determination of a guiding philosophy and the defining of goals and objectives. Dimock emphasizes the importance of a philosophy in the statement, “administration is more than learned responses, well chosen techniques; a bundle of tricks. It is not even a science and never ought to become a hard and fast method. It is more than an art. It is a philosophy.” Such a philosophy guided the selection of a staff capable of meaning decentralized recreation offices constructively and with minimum of trial and error

Corporate vision and its influence on motivation in R&D organization: Case study

In the case company X it had been found in a working climate survey that the corporate vision had not been understood by the employees of the R&D organization although the personnel have relatively high work motivation levels. Previous studies have pointed out some special features in an R&D organization, the importance of learning and innovation in R&D organizations, what motivates and how to motivate R&D personnel, etc. However, these studies could not explain the previous contradiction that had been noticed in the case company. This study aims to describe the theoretical linkages between the corporate vision and the motivational issues of R&D personnel. The role of the corporate vision in the case R&D organization has been analyzed. The issues that have more potential to motivate the R&D personnel than the corporate vision are reviewed. Furthermore, this study also attempts to give practical implications for management on these aspects. This case study uses the qualitative method to answer questions that were left open by the quantitative survey study and to deepen and give a more detailed understanding of the mentioned contradiction. This study could be said to have an abductive research methodology approach, and the researcher had some leading theories ready to be tested during the research. Considering the research objectives, the most suitable research method to collect data was the general interview guide approach. This study revealed that motivating R&D employees by a corporate vision is far-fetched. The motivation for R&D employees was coming from other substantially more important sources. On the other hand, there could be some connections between the corporate vision and motivation, that appear, e.g., in projects and organizational culture. In this study it was found that, if the corporation did not establish a R&D vision, then R&D employees practiced visionary leadership themselves to construct a realistic, believable vision for the future of their organization. It was also found that the invented personal R&D vision was based on mainly unofficial information sources and second hand rumors. If an R&D employee sees the future as unfavorable, this deteriorates the working climate and lowers motivation and output levels. Technology leadership had a mental effect on R&D employees by raising their self-esteem as engineers, and it had a positive effect on employees’ long term motivation in the case R&D organization. The issues that were related to the research process in this study were discussed with senior researchers who have generally agreed on the achieved results. Also, the key informants had reviewed the draft and agreed on the results of this study.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Англійська мова для навчання і роботи Т. 4. Професійне іншомовне письмо

Подано всі види діяльності студентів з вивчення англійської мови, спрямовані на розвиток мовної поведінки, необхідної для ефективного спілкування в академічному та професійному середовищах. Містить завдання і вправи, типові для різноманітних академічних та професійних сфер і ситуацій. Структура організації змісту – модульна, охоплює певні мовленнєві вміння залежно від мовної поведінки. Даний модуль має на меті розвиток у студентів умінь і навичок писемного спілкування, що пов’язане з майбутньою професією студентів, та основ медіації і письмового перекладу, які спрямовані на розвиток умінь писати тексти різних типів і жанрів, такі як резюме, листи, анотації тощо. Ресурси для самостійної роботи (частина ІІ) містять завдання та вправи для розвитку словникового запасу та розширення діапазону функціональних зразків, необхідних для виконання певних функцій, та завдання, які спрямовані на організацію самостійної роботи студентів. За допомогою засобів діагностики (частина ІІІ) студенти можуть самостійно перевірити засвоєння навчального матеріалу та оцінити свої досягнення. Граматичні явища і вправи для їх засвоєння наводяться в томі 5. Призначений для студентів технічних університетів гірничого профілю. Може використовуватися для викладання вибіркових курсів з англійської мови, а також для самостійного вивчення англійської мови викладачами, фахівцями і науковцями різних інженерних галузей

Strategies of human resource management in China's community health service institutions: a case study in Guangzhou

Human resource is the first factor for development. For community-based health services, the rational allocation and full utilization of their human resources are important guarantees to meet people’s growing demands for the health service. This research takes community health service institutions in Guangzhou as an example.By semi-structured interviews with 15 key insiders from community health service centers and field survey conducted among 328 medical staff, this research aims to find the quality of human resource allocation, recruiting and staffing, training and development, performance management, salary and welfare of community health service institutions. Through a combination of theories of human resource management and advanced experience of human resource management in community health service institutions at home and abroad, this research aims to put forward a strategy, which fits the China's national conditions, for human resource management in community health service institutions. The results can provide a theoretical basis for the human resource development planning of Chinese community health service institutions.According to the survey results: in regard to staff allocation, the current human resource quantity in Guangzhou community health service centers basically meets the document requirement. However, the structures of gender, education background and professional title are facing imbalance, thus the quality of human resource remains to be improved. In regard to staff recruitment, system of employment under contract is basically fulfilled and generally recognized by staff. But owing to the limitation of the current management system for human resources, it is hard to recruit and retain in-need talents. In regard to staff training, most of the Guangzhou community health service centers have developed cooperation in training with other institutions including Class III Grade I hospitals or medical associations. However, the single training content, slow knowledge update and relatively fragmented training still fail to meet the diversified human resource demands in community health service institutions.In regard to performance management, though a performance appraisal mechanism has been basically established, it has not been well systemized due to a lack of an objective, scientific assessment index system.Seeing that Guangzhou community health service centers are facing a lot of problems, such as human resources being short of quantity and quality, talents introduction mechanism and incentive mechanism being yet undeveloped, training and development of human resources being monotonous and fruitless, performance assessment being formalistic, this research proposes the five following targeted suggestions to solve the problems: first, continue to deepen the medical and health system reform; second, draw up rational human resources planning; third, optimize the mode of community health talents introduction; forth, build a systematic training and development system; fifth, develop a scientific performance appraisal and salary system.Os recursos humanos são o primeiro fator importantedo desenvolvimento. A disposição adquadaeaplena utilização de recursos humanos nos serviços de saúde da comunidade é uma garantia importante para atender à crescente demanda por serviços de saúde dos habitantes. Este estudo terá como exemploosserviçosde saúde dascomunidades deGuangzhou, através de entrevistas no local com 15 informantes-chave doscentros de serviços de saúde dascomunidades, e de investigações de 328 profissionais médicos, combinado com as teorias de gestão de recursos humanos nacionais e internacionais e as experiências avançadas de gestão de recursos humanos das instituições de serviços de saúde da comunidade, obtendo informações sobre as vantagens e desvantagens na disposição, recrutamento, formação, gestão de desempenho, remuneração e nos subsídios dos recursos humanos em organizações de serviços de saúde da comunidade, e explorandouma estratégia de gestão de recursos humanos para instituições de saúde da comunidade que atende às condições nacionais da China e fornecer uma base teórica para o programa de desenvolvimento dos serviços de saúde da comunidade da China.Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que，em termos de disposição do pessoal médico, a quantidade do pessoal que se destina aos serviços de saúde da comunidade de Guangzhou satisfaz os requisitos elementares para os recursos humanos, no entanto, existem diferenças estruturais de sexo, educação e de títulos profissionais, etc., poranto, a qualidade dos recursos humanos ainda está sujeito a mais melhoramento. Por outro lado, em relação à introdução de talentos, o sistema de recrutamento foi realizado e tem sido amplamente reconhecido pelos médicos, no entanto, devidoàs limitações do sistema de gestão do pessoal médico, mantém difícil introduzir e reter os talentos necessários. No que diz respeito à formação do pessoal médico, a maior parte deles já tinham estabelecido as relações de cooperação comos hospitais do nível 3A e as assiciações da área, mas os conteúdos da formação são uniformes e fragmantários, a atualização do conhecimento também é atrasada, por consequência, ainda não consegue atender aos requisitos dos recursos humanos dos serviços de saúde da comunidade. Toca à gestão de desempenho, o mecanismo de avaliação de desempenho já foi estabelecido, mas não tem um conjunto de indicadores científicos e objetivos para a avaliação do desempenho, portanto, o grau de sistematicidade do mecanismo de avaliação de desempenho ainda está sujeito ao mais aprefeiçoamento

Target cost in Statoil projects: The effects of capital expenditure targets

Master's thesis in Business administration: Executive MBAThis paper consists of an explorative investigation into the effects of the concept “target cost” in development projects executed by the Norwegian energy company Statoil ASA. Target cost is a financial target towards capital expenditure implemented in all major development projects in the researched company in order to increase performance and lower costs. An exploratory approach using a qualitative investigation based on interviews of six project directors examined this concept in detail. The aim of this research was to gain a deeper insight into the effects of having a financial target in the execution phase of offshore construction projects. Five objectives were formulated, consisting of; how target cost effects projects, why target cost motivates, when target cost is effective, who is effected, and finally if the target cost has an effect on reducing project expenditure. The interviews provided a wide range of results consistent with existing goal theory and associated literature. Some of the findings were however, not expected prior to the interviews. Target cost was found to be associated with several positive effects identified through secondary research. In addition, unexpected findings such as the disciplining effect of target, the communicating effect and cultural effect were identified. A range of positive emotions towards target cost and target attainment were recognised, indicating high levels of intrinsic motivation as a reason why individuals’ behaviour may be effected. Increased focus on target cost by management, was suggested to increase perceived importance of target cost in the remaining project organisation. Findings also suggest that as a result of introducing beyond budgeting, a higher focus on cost and a discontent with overspending occurred. The findings indicate a shift from budget based comfort zones to beyond budgeting based stretch zones. Target cost efficacy was found to be effected by a range of situational factors. Some of the central findings suggest that culture is also a prerequisite for target effectiveness as well as an effect of the target. Other findings indicate development and control of uncertainties as important towards individuals’ perception of attainability of target cost. Inconsistent opinions regarding the level of difficulty towards achieving target cost were noted, suggesting target cost to be recognised as a difficult goal rather than a stretch target. Finally, there is a consistent belief among project directors that target cost reduces capital expenditure. Implementing findings from the previous objectives into Locke and Latham’s (2002) High Performance Cycle supports and reinforces the interviewees statements